1. Technical Field
This application relates to a method for the manufacture of mixed packages and device for carrying out the method.
2. Background Information
Containers or packaging units, such as, for example, bottles, cartons or other packaging formats etc. filled with a product may be packed in external packages such as, for example, cartons, trays, beverage cases etc. and the marketing of the products in this form.
The containers in a package of this type generally all contain one and the same product, which can be, for example, a beverage of a certain type or variety (for example exclusively juice or soft drinks or beer etc.) and/or of one and the same flavor. Packages that are made up of containers or other packaging units that contain one and the same product are designated “single-variety packages” below.
The retail trade and/or the final consumer often demand packages that contain more than one variety and are referred to as “mixed packages” below, in which case they contain, in their external packaging, packaging units or containers that contain different products, such as, for example, containers with beverages (e.g. soft drinks) of different varieties and/or different flavors (e.g. cola beverages and fruit-flavored soft drinks etc.).
Mixed packages of this type can also include, for example, trays that hold animal food packaged in cans, in which case the tray in question can contain cans of different flavors.
A device of this type was described in DE 10 2004 062 958.7. This application related to a device in which containers are taken from single-variety packages and are then assembled into mixed packages with additional containers of other varieties to form packages that contain more than one variety.
The specific focus of DE 10 2004 062 958 is the description of a device for the unpacking of single-variety packages.
In the framework of that application, the function of the assembling of different varieties or mixing of the containers of different varieties is described only in general terms and with a different emphasis, which is to show that the assembling of the containers with different varieties could be done, for example, by means of a controlled pick/place or gripper arrangement.